Unhealthy air keeps local athletes stuck inside

Zach Urness

Leader Staff

When new Ronan football coach Dan Sward took a job in the Mission Valley, surrounded by pine-scented forest and snow-capped mountains, he probably figured the last thing he would need to worry about was the air quality. After all, he came from Bakersfield, Calif., a town with a reputation of having the most polluted air in the United States.

But he didn't expect half the state of Montana to be on fire.

"It's kind of funny," he said ironically. "The last place I coached had the worst air in American and I only had to cancel practice once or twice. Since I've been here, in this beautiful town, we've had to have practice indoors everyday because of the air. Today (Monday) was the first day we got outside."

Because of the Chippy Creek fire — at one point the largest fire in Montana — burning outside of Thompson Falls and Hot Springs, and fires in both Missoula and Flathead continuing, the air has, at times, tasted like a big piece of used charcoal.

And with the fall sports season rapidly approaching coaches and players, to their great dismay, were stuck indoors for all of last week, leaving many coaches to worry about how prepared their teams will be for the coming season.

"It is somewhat discouraging," said Polson head football coach and athletic director Scott Wilson. "As of now this is the worst year I've had, worse even than the other big fire year in 2003. I just try not to let it get in the kids' minds. I just tell them that we live in a beautiful place and things like this happen and it's out of our control."

The problem is that, for sports like football and soccer, the coaches only get two weeks to prepare their team for their first game, barely enough time even without being forced to spend an entire week indoor, fighting for gym space with the volleyball team.

The problem is especially prevalent for the Polson football team, who has their first game on this Friday, and will only have, at best, four days of outdoor practice to try and master the complex nature of cover-two formations and weak-side zone blitz packages.

"You can do some conditioning in the gym," said Wilson, "but you really don't get into 'football shape' when you're inside. It also screws up the timing for our receivers and we really can't do too much with the whole team working together. It could definitely play a factor in the first game just because it's coming up so quickly."

Ronan opens its season next Friday, Aug. 31, so they have a little more time to prepare.

Sward said that the biggest problem is that being inside without pads you can't work on the most important part of the game — hitting.

"Football is all about hitting," he said. "Without working on that it's pretty tough. It has been very frustrating."

But with the air as bad as it was last week, both coaches said making sure the players are safe is the top priority and that they work with the county health departments and tribal officials to figure out the best course of action for the safety of players.

And that caution is certainly warranted, since there are major health effects that smoke can have.

According to information provided by the county health department, the effects of smoke run from irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract to more serious disorders, including asthma, bronchitis, reduced lung function and premature death. While not everybody will be so affected by the smoke, those who are engaging in deep breathing, like athletes, are at an increased risk.

The Polson school district laid out their policy in a press release, noting that Wilson "Checks the posted Air Quality Updates generated by the Air Quality Program Manager at CSKT and distributed by the Lake County Health Department. Wilson uses these to inform his decisions about sport practices. If Polson's air quality is in Stage 1: 'Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups,' Wilson and the coaches will limit exertion at outdoor sports practices. If Polson is in a Stage 2: 'Unhealthy,' 'Very Unhealthy' or 'Hazardous' episode, all sports practices will be held indoors."

Sward said he used a similar method for determining if practice will occur.

Even with reports from the health department, both coaches noted that they have to keep their eyes open for signs of trouble on the field. The seriousness of the situation was underscored last week when a Bigfork player collapsed on Monday, Aug. 20, and died last Monday, although it's not known as of presstime what caused him to collapse, and whether air quality was a factor.

"When you're dealing with something like this you have to error on the side of caution," commented Wilson. "You just don't know how kids are going to react. It's better to sit them down than risk causing damage."

The rainy conditions on Monday and Tuesday helped improve air quality, and outdoor practices were allowed to resume Monday.